NYC, Bayonne Vying To Attract New Amazon Headquarters
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Amazon's decision to create a second headquarters has cities all over North America fighting to get it.
What's the popular, lucrative company looking for?
"Close to public transit with infrastructure, talent pool, connections possibly to academia," Dan Geiger, a real estate reporter for Crain's New York Business, told CBS2's Jennifer Borg.
The company plans to invest $5 billion in the property and says it needs as much as 8 million square feet of office space over the next 10 years.
Right now, landlords and developers across New York City are working on their pitches to attract the tech and e-commerce giant.
The city will be looking at proposals in the coming days to bring to Amazon. It's considering warehouse space throughout neighborhoods in Brooklyn, among other areas.
Amazon promises the new location will bring 50,000 high-paying jobs.
"We also have a very young workforce that's living in Brooklyn, and that is something that's appealing to companies that are growing so rapidly," said James Patchett, president of the New York City Economic Development Corp.
Officials hope the vibrancy of the city will help make it overcome the drawback of being one of the most expensive places to live.
Enter Bayonne, New Jersey -- across New York Harbor -- a competing bidder.
The city has more than 230 acres ready to use right on the waterfront in a vacant military yard.
"There is no place in the world where Amazon can come, get a piece of property like this, that's as clean as this is, with the views that this has," said Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis.
Those views include Bayonne Golf Club, Verrazano Bridge and Statue of Liberty in the distance.
Although being near a port is not one of Amazon's criteria, Bayonne's mayor says it's only a plus.
"The biggest thing with this is you can run ferries from everywhere to bring people to work," he said.
Amazon plans to pick its new home base by next year.
